USG Ishimura
The USG Ishimura was first of the massive planet cracker ships, and was named after astrophysicist Hideki Ishimura (inventor of the ShockPoint Drive, a form of FTL travel). Built 62 years before the beginning of the Dead Space narrative, the Ishimura has had a long and storied career under the ownership of the Concordance Extraction Corporation. The Ishimura was the first vessel of her size to utilize the shockpoint drive for large-scale, commercial, and deep space expeditions. Its total crew complement is well over a thousand, consisting of miners, scientists, engineers, security personnel, medical staff, flight crew, and officers. It is not known how the children of the crew factor into this number. At the time of her inception, the Ishimura was hailed as the savior of Earth and the colonies and the symbol of Mankind's innovation. She was created to mine and smelt entire planets and moons. She was also the first ship capable of the "scan and catch technique" for harvesting mineral-rich asteroids using huge gravity tethers. The Ishimura can lock onto asteroids and pull them inside the ships massive collection bays for smelting. Despite being designed primarily as a mining vessel, the Ishimura also functioned as a medical research vessel. It had a dedicated medical wing, where research into virology, toxins and genetics was conducted. Even at 62 years old, the Ishimura was still in remarkable shape. Much of the equipment had been upgraded over the years with many sections refitted to take advantage of modern advances in technology. Despite the long years of service, she was the pride of the fleet and remained the largest planet cracker in the fleet. Whenever a deep space mining project came up and the Ishimura was available, she was the first to be called. Operational History Prior to Dead Space The events leading to the Dead Space game are displayed in the Dead Space prequel comic series, the animated movie: Dead Space: Downfall, the NoKnownSurvivors website, and the prequel Dead Space: Extraction. The USG Ishimura is the setting of the game Dead Space. It is a "planet-cracker" class mining ship; the first and largest of its kind. Prior to the events of the Dead Space game, the Ishimura is called to assist in transporting a strange 'Marker', found on the surface of the Aegis VII colony, back to Earth. Upon arriving at Aegis VII, Captain Matthius, the Ishimura's commanding officer and a devout Unitologist, orders that the 'Marker' and all prevalent data be removed to the ship. Once this has been accomplished, the crew of the Ishimura begin planet-crack operations; the cover put in place to hide any knowledge of the marker to those outside. Coinciding with the planet-crack, the Ishimura briefly loses all contact with the colony and, once contact has been re-established, the crew discovers that the entire colony has been slaughtered. Further contact with one of the mining teams, who are themselves slaughtered during the brief communication, reveals nothing of the colony's fate. Events of Dead Space The Necromorph infection was confined to the colony, but we learn how the Necromorph infection reached the Ishimura in Dead Space: Downfall. Following the Planet Crack and ensuing destruction of the colony, the infection spread to the Ishimura when a distraught Colin Barrow brought both his wife's corpse and an Infector aboard; disregarding orders to turn back, Barrow crash landed the shuttle aboard the Ishimura. The security response and attempt to isolate or quarantine the shuttle - and the infection - failed; it is believed that the Infector reached the ship's morgue shortly after. The crew was attacked by the creatures while on their daily routines. People are killed while on duty, while eating, showering, or keeping themselves entertained. There were only a few reported incidents at first, but with each new kill, another creature was born, and word of the danger quickly spread through the ship. Some men and women had jobs that they were forced to continue despite the obvious danger, in order to keep the ship stabilized, but these stalwart crew members obviously didn't last long, and the ship slowly began to malfunction from nobody monitoring it. It finally became obvious that the entire crew was in danger, as order around the ship vanished. Decks that the creatures didn't reach yet holed themselves off and made barricades to hold back the creatures when they came. Yet most of the decks were caught unprepared, with the crew running around everywhere, with the creatures killing them all until there was nobody left and the deck was left derelict. The Bridge, as well as the Medical and Mining decks reportedly held out the longest, with the Medical deck being completely overwhelmed with badly injured survivors, to the point where the medical staff barricaded the injured outside. The injured were killed by Necromorphs, and the creatures eventually breached the barricades and slaughtered the remaining medical staff. The mining deck, where wandering survivors rallied, due to the Necromorphs having a hard time breaching the steel doors, but were eventually overrun. The Bridge is the last deck to be overrun. The remaining bridge crew, security, and officers were eventually overwhelmed by Necromorphs bursting through the ventilation shafts. arrives, responding to the Ishimura's distress call.]] To make matters worse, an unknown force jettisons the ship's compliment of escape shuttles (likely due to a rogue crew member suffering from the Red Marker's influence), leaving the remaining crew trapped on board their own ship with no way out. As a last desperate resort, Dr. Kyne disengages the ships engines, causing the ship to begin a slow descent towards the planet in hopes that it will burn up in the atmosphere. P.C.S.I. Sec. officer Alissa Vincent intercepts him and tries to stabilize the ships engines in a bid to rescue the remaining survivors, but fails and instead sacrifices herself to launch a distress signal into space, as well as to suck out numerous Necromorphs. It is at this point that the USG Kellion shockpoints in, in response to the Ishimura's distress signal, beginning the events of Dead Space. Many of the areas of the ship are covered in Necromorph biomass or otherwise damaged; resulting in failures in the ship's life support, automated systems, or artificial gravity. It becomes clear throughout the game that the Ishimura is beyond repair and is doomed. However, the ship does not seem to possess a self-destruct system, and thus the ship cannot be destroyed other than manually disengaging the engines and hoping its orbit will decay, resulting in it falling into a planet's gravity well. The ship is left derelict at the end of "Dead Space", when Isaac heads for Aegis VII in the Executive Shuttle. It is unknown what becomes of it after the mining colony is devastated by the asteroid. It is possible, and most likely, that the Ishimura fell into Aegis 7's gravity well and was destroyed. In the recently announced Dead Space 2, a ship that looks startlingly like the Ishimura is seen in the docking bay. If the ship is indeed the Ishimura, what it is doing at the Sprawl, seemingly sterilized of all of its Necromorph infection and lacking the wreck of the USM Valor embedded in its hull, has not been revealed. Post Aegis 7 Incident After the incident, the Earth Government falsified the details of the Ishimura's destruction, claiming that the ship was lost to a terrorist attack. It is unknown if Isaac Clarke or Nathan McNeill , Gabe Weller and Lexine Murdoch will be used as scapegoats for the "attack". The Ishimura was commemorated by the government and the CEC, keeping the public oblivious to the ship's real fate. [http://deadspace.ea.com/en_us/home#flash/mediaid=beat1posterswf-20100426063325986 DeadSpace 2, Remember the Ishimura] Ship Sections Bridge The control room where the Ishimura is navigated and monitored. It consists of several sections: the Atrium, which is the bridge of the Ishimura; the Captain's Nest, which is Captain Matthius' personal observation area; Administration, where the ship's section leaders work; and Communications/External Access, where the Comm Array is located. The various sections are serviced by elevators accessed from the Atrium. Escape pods are located outside the Captain's Nest. The Captains Nest itself is a restricted area and only officers holding the rank of level 5 are allowed to enter. The bridge controls are largely holographic based. All around the bridge are various stations with holographic displays. When Isaac enters the main atrium, all the holographic displays read "System Failure." Cargo Hold Directly below Hydroponics, this deck was where valuable ore extracted from operations on the Mining Deck was stored in large containment cylinders. In the game, it is the area the USM Valor crashes into, thus the entire deck is basically destroyed. The Ore Storage area is instead dominated by the wreck of the Valor. The deck is basically a gigantic room in zero gravity, although it is one of the smallest in the game. Crew Deck The residential areas of the ship's crew. A large relaxing area comprised mainly of sleeper bunks, the area also has a mess hall and a Zero-G basketball court. The crew deck has several small lounges, made in one room with some chairs and sofas, around a big projector, possibly some kind of television. The Executive Lounge and Executive Quarters(Captain and other leaders of the ship's homes) are located here, as is the Executive Shuttle. Engines The vessel was powered by immense SubSpace Engines. Engineering Deck The section of the Ishimura where various engineers work at maintaining the ship. This area is responsible for ensuring the Ship's shockpoint drive and gravity centrifuge work, as well as the nav rockets, and lifting capacity was at 525 trillion kilograms. This area is noted for being very dangerous as only Class 5 Engineers are allowed entry. Unlike other ship areas such as the bridge and medical, engineering is very dark and industrial often with pipes, conduits and exposed circuitry on the walls. It is divided into 3 primary areas: *'Gravity Centrifuge Access:' A large chamber that holds the Gravity Centrifuge, a machine that holds the ship in high orbit over a planet. *'Fuel Storage:' A large, very dark open area. It is separated into 2 sections by a mini-tram. This area feeds fuel into the engines. The area is rather high above the floor and is dominated by a large rotating ring of huge fuel cells and the main fuel line, and is by far the darkest area of the deck. *'Engine Room:' A large room that proudly displays the Ishimura's immense SubSpace Engines on the ceiling, several hundred feet in diameter. Flight Deck Location of the main hangers where shuttles would enter and leave the Ishimura. Contains a fully equipped departure/arrival lounge and has access to the cargo bay, allowing materials to be loaded into shuttles for transport. The Executive Shuttle Docking Bay connects to this, as well as the Cargo Bay. The Ishimura has multiple docking bays situated all over the ship for shuttles of various sizes, ranging from the massive main hangar bay where the Kellion crashes to smaller mining shuttle bays such as Docking Bay 17, where the Necromorph infection came on board the Ishimura. Hydroponics The Ishimura's internal farm which produces the food needed to feed the many workers aboard the ship as well as providing a sustainable production of oxygen. Hydroponics is typically maintained by horticulturalists such as Elizabeth Cross, who monitored the production levels of the food. The section came under trouble when the Leviathan grew into food storage and began polluting the air. A massive area, Hydroponics is divided into 2 primary sections: the multi-level Vegetation Growth Chambers and the centrally located cylindrical Food Storage chamber. Directly before food storage is the air quality control and ventilation system, the Station features a large Hologram screen and controls that indicate air production, ventilation, and filtration systems. Hydroponics spans the entire top portion of the Ishimura's two engine towers and is accessed by a tram elevator. Mining Deck The heart of the Ishimura, this is where asteroids and planet fragments are broken apart and smelted for valuable minerals. A 4-level deck, it is by far the largest deck on the Ishimura. Asteroids are brought in via an entrance on the third level and held in place by gravity tethers. Science/Medical Deck The Medical Deck of the Ishimura contains various facilities including: Zero-G Therapy, an Intensive Care Unit, Imaging and Diagnostics, Biolab, Cryo Lab, Chemical Lab, Morgue and also various research areas and offices of the scientists aboard the ship. The deck is serviced by two trams: one at the main entrance, and one at the Cryo Storage entrance. The Medical Deck is divided into three areas: Emergency Ward, Imaging and Diagnostics and the Research Wing. Dr. Kyne's office is located in the Research Wing's ground floor, while Dr. Mercer's is located in the Emergency Ward. Before the infestation, the medical deck was one of the brightest areas on the ship with virtually all lighting in the medical areas being a vivid white. Notable Subsections And Systems Asteroid Defense System A large fixed Array of Mass Drivers used on board many Planet Cracker-class ships. Its primary goal is to track and destroy asteroids automatically, preventing damaging collisions with the ship. However, in the event that a part of the ADS goes offline, a crew member will have to manually control an offline ADS Cannon. Cinema Although not seen in the game or movie itself, posters in the Mess Hall of the Crew Deck allude to a movie theater on board the Ishimura, intended to entertain off duty workers or their families. Computer Core Although not seen in the game, and only briefly shown in the movie, the Computer Core is presumably the central processing area for the Ishimura's databanks. It allows remote locking and unlocking of various areas, remote disengaging of the ship's engines and access to the ship's library. Kendra Daniels barricades herself here after she and Hammond are attacked by a Leaper. Quarantine System Not necessarily a section of the ship, Decontamination chambers can be found throughout the ship. Their purpose is to cleanse workers of any bacteria and small debris that could contaminate an important area. Every area on the Ishimura is equipped with sensors that detect contaminants, such as Necromorphs. When one or more of these is detected, the area is locked down until the threat is removed. This also serves as a game mechanic to ensure the player cannot simply run constantly from any and all threats - they must stand their ground. The USM Valor also has a similar system of containment. Emergency Shuttles Due to the Ishimura's task as a mining ship and its frequent danger, the ship was equipped with a large compliment of escape shuttles which could be used to evacuate the ship in an emergency. The escape shuttles count apparently numbers at 50, with a capacity of 24 each in order to accommodate the ship's complement of 1,200. However, when the Necromorph infection reached the Ishimura, the entire complement was mysteriously jettisoned, with no one on board. By the time Isaac Clarke arrived, the only means of escaping the ship was a single damaged escape pod outside the bridge, which was promptly jettisoned by Hammond to removed a Slasher. The Ishimura also carried a small compliment of mining shuttles for transportation, but these were either destroyed or also remotely jettisoned by the time the USG Kellion arrives. Flight Lounge The shuttle bay is the first in-game location where you encounter the Necromorphs. The Peng Treasure is located out of the room in the docking bay. Tram System Due to the Ishimura's size, a tram system has been built into the ship, allowing fast and easy access to each of the ship's sections. However, the system is single rail, so a single damaged tram will prevent travel throughout the ship. The floor of the tram's subway can be traversed, however. Personnel Manifest The exact number of personnel aboard the USG Ishimura is unknown; information from different sources differ greatly. ''Dead Space'' Dead Space effectively states that there were at least one thousand people on board the USG Ishimura. ''Dead Space: Extraction'' Sergeant Weller states that there are, again, at least eight hundred miners on board. This would not include other personnel such as Security. ''No Known Survivors: Thirteen'' The following statistics are found on the Interstellar Vessel Manifest Registration console in "Thirteen", the second half of No Known Survivors. It suggests that one thousand, three-hundred thirty-two persons were aboard the USG Ishimura at the time of the Second Aegis 7 Incident. Personnel: 1,332 *'Crew:' 80 *'Service:' 145 *'Custodial:' 88 *'Clerical:' 65 *'Extension/Familial:' 208 *'Security:' 89 *'Colonial:' 307 *'Medical:' 69 *'Technical:' 177 *'Other:' 104 Trivia *The literal Japanese meaning of Ishimura is Rock Village, appropriate for its purpose. :*Additionally, the presence of Japanese markings throughout the ship, most notably on the ship logo, suggest either heavy Japanese influence or direct Japanese-based construction. *The USG prefix and what it stands for is not explained, however when Kendra calls it "Ishimura" Zach Hammond is quick to correct her by saying "the US'G''' Ishimura''", emphasizing the G. Gallery File:Dead-space-0056.jpg|A closeup of the Ishimura's Bridge. File:Concept_ishimura_in_profile.jpg|The hull of the starship. File:Dead-space-20080729042426407_thumb_ign.jpg|Bottom view of the ship File:Loading_screen_01.jpg|The different parts of the USG Ishimura as shown in a loading screen. File:Join_the_team.jpg|A poster aboard the USG Ishimura. File:Remember the Ishimura.jpg|A memorial poster titled "Remember the Ishimura" aboard the Sprawl. Notes Sources Category:Spaceships Category:Content Category:Technology